Proof of Life: Author Edition

He is risen! It’s been four months, so figured it was time to stick my head up above the trenches and share what I’ve been up to.

Vocal’s Facelift

First off, what did I miss? Yet another platform now has blue verified checkmarks? And now the text editor has formatting options?

I, for one, can say it’s a welcome change to come back to see a new feature has been rolled out on Vocal with absolutely zero flaws, login issues, or platform downtime. Everyone must have been thrilled when it first released.

But enough about the frictionless introduction of the verification system and other features. You’re here to hear about what I’ve been up to, and we have a lot of ground to cover.

A New Podcast Season

The perfectly titled Jon and Stephen Recorded Readings podcast (check your local listings/the page link below) now has a fourth season underway with just one more episode until completion. This season’s theme: horror. Because how better to combat the summer heat and long sun-soaked days than with chilling tales? First episode below (bonus: it got a Runner Up award on this very platform!).

Now with enhancements such as a central location to find playlists by genre so you don’t have to sort through the show feed and to find links to the other platforms that host it if you’re not a Spotify girlie:

So if there’s one thing you take away from this update, please check out an episode and give the show a quick rating. If horror isn’t your bag, there’s comedy stories, historical fiction, action/adventure (including a guest appearance from Vocal heavyweight Matthew J. Fromm), and even science fiction.

A Few More Notches on the Old Short Story Belt

I won’t sugarcoat it: this year has been the slowest one for short story publications I’ve seen in a while. Not for lack of trying; conversely, it has been one of the most fruitful for rejections.

And, hey, rejections from publications are a necessary evil as part of doing business in the independent writer market. Don’t just take this Stephen’s word for it, take this Stephen’s word for it.

Fortunately, it is not a true drought*, despite what my Writing Responses folder in Gmail might lead you to believe.

• “The Long-Sought I. batatas” published in Shenandoah Fantastic. A comedic science fiction story about a space marine who must rebuild a potato chip factory on a post-apocalyptic Earth after making the mistake of bringing a bag back to the Emperor of the Interstellar Imperium as a cultural artifact.

• “Tour Unit 73Y” published in Virginia Fantastic. Another comedic science fiction story, this time following a war machine nerfed and repurposed as a tour guide. More on this one in the next section.

• “At Sea,” a reprint published in Just Beneath Your Boat, a charity anthology supporting Nature and Culture International as it works to protect forests across Latin America. A classic horror story set on the high seas.

• “Descent into the Forgotten” published in Fantastic Voyages. A seagull fledgling discovers a hidden world hidden beneath the surface as he and his siblings explore the ruins of a bombed-out city. And a story that took 11 years to find its home!

*And for those struggling to reach the milestone of one short story published, I recognize you might be less than sympathetic seeing me bemoan my “paltry” list of only four publications for 2026. For the record, it took me years to crest that hill (see final bullet above), so I know your struggle. Nothing to it but to keep doing it (i.e. checking the call requirements, ensuring your story checks the publisher’s boxes, confirming formatting and file requirements are met, and sending it off to meet its fate).

Another Book Talk

A major win of this year is my newfound relationship with local Virginia publisher Whitaker Lyon Press and mastermind James Blakey. That has paved the way for many great things, including the first two publication credits above, but far more than that. Not least of which is the fact that I’ve gotten to meet many fellow independent authors between Shenandoah Fantastic and Virginia Fantastic.

I go into far more detail on Shenandoah Fantastic, my story contained within, and the first-ever book launch party I got to attend because of the project in this reflection.

This time around I will give a nod to Virginia Fantastic and my story “Tour Unit 73Y.” If you read the summary in the last section and said “Huh, kind of sounds like Murderbot,” you are correct and also a person of culture. I set out with the explicit goal of parodying the incredible series by Martha Wells, and I succeeded. Tour Unit 73Y is a perfect killing machine also compelled to suppress its greatest gift and keep humans intact (mostly intact, anyway).

And as we’ve come to expect with any story collection from Whitaker Lyon Press, quality is at the forefront.

The cover is made up of references to stories within:

The inside cover contains a map so you can see where every story is set across the Commonwealth we call Virginia:

Every story goes through rounds of editing and proofreading:

[Not pictured—but trust me, it happened]

Plus, every story is flash fiction, so good news: if you don’t like a particular story, it will be over soon (i.e. in a thousand words or less). And there’s 40 more chances after that one to strike gold.

So it was that I approached Handley Regional Library in Winchester, Virginia with my copies of Shenandoah Fantastic and Virginia Fantastic in hand, excited but also slightly nervous at the prospect of filling 60 minutes of time talking about writing. Especially given us writers’ reputations as introverts. And even worse, there was a non-zero chance we might be speaking to an empty room.

Thus, I am extremely pleased to report that I was mistaken on all counts. My fellow panelists/authors and I filled those 60 minutes. We had a great time doing it. And people showed up to listen!

Yet another reason why Whitaker Lyon Press is one of the best publishers I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

Written Form Takes on Visual Form

Hey, wouldn’t you know it, another unique opportunity to come out of working with a local publisher who has built a community of authors via their projects.

Specifically, one of those authors also belonged to a local art gallery and suggested to some of the studio artists that they might create art inspired by the stories in Shenandoah Fantastic.

So it was that I found myself driving to the Shenandoah Valley one fine March morning to see not one, but two paintings inspired by my story “The Long-Sought I. batatas” debuting at Woodstock’s finest art gallery VECCA.

And there’s no feeling quite like seeing amazing work like this, knowing it was all based on your own written word:

Credit Travis K Schuerman—also any Halo fans will appreciate that I’ve taken to referring to this space marine as Noble 11.

Credit Dan Miller—because we need a traditional space marine treatment, too.

And since the story was inspired by, set in, and essentially a love letter to Route 11 Potato Chips, I figured a donation was in order.

You can check out my Instagram post for a bunch more pictures and a big old reflection that I sadly do not have the space to include here:

That’s All—For Now The Moment

Speaking of space, I have already blasted through my target length for this post and we’re only halfway through the list of achievements/updates I have to share. So I leave you on this cliffhanger for now no longer:

And again, please consider giving our podcast a listen. It’s a collaboration between an independent writer (me, but also Matt at least once) and my good friend/independent narrator Jonathan Kilgore, so support two creators with one listen.